Apparatus for making a metallic belt



ug 28, 1956 E. T. LoRlG APPARATUS FOR MAKING A METALLIC BELT Filed Feb. l5, 1952 INVENTOR.' 50W/N TME/6, BY.'

'IIA Iii'uu Allegheny County, Pa., Corporation, a corpora- Edwin T. Lorig, Ross Township, assigner to United States Steel tion of New Jersey Application February 13, 1952, Serial No. 271,404 4 Claims. (Cl. 153,490)

This invention relates `to apparatus for making metallic belts and particularly for making such belts from steel strip. At present there is a large demand for light gage at stainless steel conveyor belts, but it is diiiicult to secure sutlicient straightness of the edges `to permit proper operation of the belt over conveyor pulleys. The camber in cold rolled strip is often so great in the total length required for metal belts that if used for a metal belt in the as rolled condition, the center line of the belt would move in a lateral arc even when using centering pulleys of the type shown in my copending applications, Serial No. 97,218, led June 4, 1949, now Patent No. 2,593,157, Serial No. 138,389, filed January 13, 1950, now Patent No. 2,592,581, and Serial No. 145,648, filed February 23, 1950, now Patent No. 2,593,158. For that reason in most instances it is necessary to cut, fit, patch and trim a length or lengths of strip to secure suicient straightness in the iinished belt. This is a tedious and costly procedure and results in the waste of much of the strip.

it is therefore an object of my invention to provide apparatus for making a metallic belt from a length of cold rolled strip in the as rolled condition.

Another object is to provide apparatus for removing camber from a strip.

These and other objects will be more apparent after referring to the following specication and attached drawings, in which:

Figure l is a invention;

Figure 2 is a plan View of a second embodiment of my invention; and

Figure 3 is a side elevation of the apparatus of Figure 2.

Referring more particularly to Figure l of the drawings reference numeral 2 indicates a self-centering roll or pulley of the type disclosed in my copending Patent No. 2,593,157, although other self-centering rolls of the type shown in my copending Patents Nos. 2,592,581 and 2,593,158 may be used. The pulley 2 has its ends mount ed in bearings 4 and 6. The bearing 4 is mounted on a platform 8 and has an extension extending therethrough which is' driven from a motor 10 through a gear box 12. The motor and gear box are also mounted on the platform 8. Platform 8 is mounted on a base 14 which is provided with an arcuate guideway 16 which cooperates with a ilange (not shown) on the platform 8 to control the movement of the platform on the base 14. The base 14 is provided with spaced apart anges 18 and the platform 8 is provided with a ange 20 located between the anges 18. A screw 22 passes through each of the anges 18 and bears against the ange 20. By turning the screws 22 the position of the platform 8 on the base 14 may be adjusted. The bearing 6 is pivotally mounted on a base 24 by means of a pivot 26. A second selfcentering pulley 28 is spaced from the pulley 2 in substantial parallelism and in exact alignment therewith. The pulleys 2 and 28 are of relatively small diameter,

plan view of one embodiment of my nited States Patent O ice between 2 and 3 inches in ydiameter for stn'p between .005 and .010 inch thick, and between 4 and 6 inches in diameter for strip between .015 and .04 inch thick. The length of the rolls should be twice the width of the strip to be straightened. The pulley 28 is mounted in .spaced apart bearings 30 which in turn are mounted 0n a Slidable platform 32 mounted `in guides 34 in a base 36.. The platform 3 2 is provided with tapered sides 38 which cooperate with wedges 40 mounted in the guide 34.. Right and left hand screw 42 passes through threaded openings in the wedges 40. By turning the screw 42, the distance between pulleys 2 and 28 is varied.

The operation of the device is as follows:

A length of strip is fastened together to form an endless cambered metal belt S which is placed in position around the pulleys 2 and 28. Tension is applied to the belt S by means of the wedge and screw adjusting mechanism 40 and 42. The amount of tension required iS not great. The motor 10 is then started in operation to rotate the pulley 2 and the strip S will inmediately-move over laterally on the pulleys in a direction such that the long edge will approach one end of the automatic centen ing pulleys and the short edge will approach the transverse center line of the pulleys as shown in full lines in Figure 1. As rotation of the assembly continues, the short edge of the belted strip S is subjected to higher tension liexing than the long edge, thus causing the fibers of the short edge of the strip to progressively elongate at a greater rate of speed than the bers on the opposite side of the strip center line. As the accelerated elongation of the short edge continues, the belt S will move back toward the transverse center line of the centering pulleys until the belt moves to the broken line position on the exact transverse center line of the centering pulleys. The belt in this condition will have straight parallel edges suitable for accurate tracking when used with automatic centering rolls.

When the strip is badly cambered, the pulley 2 is moved out of its exact parallel relationship with pulley 28 before starting rotation of the belt S so as to prevent the cambered belt from riding too far off-center. As the camber is progressively reduced, the roll 2 is gradually moved back into parallelism with pulley 28. The operation is otherwise the same as that described above.

Figures 2 and 3 disclose another modification of my invention which is particularly adapted for use with wide metal belts. In this embodiment a roller leveler 44 having small work rolls is inserted between the self-centering pulleys 2 and 28 which are mounted in the same way as in Figure 1. The rolls of the roller leveler 44 may or may not be driven. The ends of the strip S may be connected by a temporary joint J. The operation of this device is much the same as that of Figure l except that the direction of rotation of the belt S is periodically reversed to prevent the joint .T from passing through the roller leveler 44. The introduction of the roller leveler 44 is approximately midway between the pulleys 2 and 28 and in alignment and parallelism therewith will cause the center line of the cambered strip under tension to move laterally toward the centerline of the leveler. This lateral movement causes much higher stresses in the short side of the cambered strip which when subjected to sharp repeated bending over the small rolls of the roller leveler will rapidly strain and stretch all fibers in the width of the strip until they are equal in length to the long iibers. At this time the strip S will be centered on the pulleys 2 and 28. If the strip ends have been temporarily fastened together the strip will be removed from the straightening apparatus and its ends fastened together to form a belt.

While two embodiments of my invention have been Patented Allg.. 28, 1956 shown and described it will be apparent that other adaptations and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

l. Apparatus for removing camber from an endless metallic belt comprising two spaced apart automatic centering rolls around which the belt passes, each roll having a belt supporting surface of substantially greater width than the width of the belt, said rolls being arranged in alignment with one another, the belt supporting surface of each roll on the side remote from the other roll being substantially in parallelism with the corresponding belt supporting surface of the other roll, the central portion of each of said belt supporting surface having a diameter as great as or slightly greater than the diam eter of the outer portions of the corresponding belt supporting surface, a shaft for supporting each of said rolls, spaced apart bearings for supporting the shafts of each of said rolls located outside the belt supporting surface thereof, each of said rolls including a pair of axially spaced belt supporting members one on each side of its transverse center and means for positively causing said belt supporting members to rotate at the same angular velocity, the construction being such that a slight deflection of the shaft takes place so that the axes of the belt supporting members of each roll converge toward each other and toward the other roll under load, means for rotating one of said rolls, and means for moving one of said rolls toward and away from the other roll to apply tension to the belt.

2. Apparatus for removing camber from an endless belt according to claim 1 in which a roller leveler having small rolls is positioned between the automatic centering rolls in the path of movement of said belt.

3. Apparatus for removing camber from an endless belt according to claim l including a pivotal mounting for one end of one of said rolls, and means for moving the other end of said pivotal mounted roll about said pivotal mounting.

4. Apparatus for removing camber from an endless belt according to claim 3 in which a roller leveler heving small rolls is positioned between the automatic centering rolls in the path of movement of said belt.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,795,137 Nye Mar. 3, 1931 2,037,067 Crossman et al Apr. 14, 1935 2,217,075 OMalley Oct. 8, 1940 2,355,448 Kratz Aug. 8, 1944 2,593,157 Lorig Apr. 15, 1952 2,593,158 Lorig Apr. 15, 1952 

1. APPARATUS FOR REMOVING CAMBER FROM AN ENDLESS METALLIC BELT COMPRISING TWO SPACED APART AUTOMATIC CENTERING ROLLS AROUND WHICH THE BELT PASSES, EACH ROLL HAVING A BELT SUPPORTING SURFACE OF SUBSTANTIALLY GREATER WIDTH THAN THE WIDTH OF THE BELT, SAID ROLLS BEING ARRANGED IN ALIGNMENT WITH ONE ANOTHER, THE BELT SUPPORTING SURFACE OF EACH ROLL ON THE SIDE REMOTE FROM THE OTHER ROLL BEING SUBSTANTIALLY IN PARALLELISM WITH THE CORRESPONDING BELT SUPPORTING SURFACE OF THE OUTER ROLL, THE CENTRAL PORTION OF EACH OF SAID BELT SUPPORTING SURFACE HAVING A DIAMETER AS GREAT AS OR SLIGHTLY GREATER THAN THE DIAMETER OF THE OUTER PORTIONS OF THE CORRESPONDING BELT SUPPORTING SURFACE, A SHAFT FOR SUPPORTING EACH OF SAID ROLLS, SPACES APART BEARINGS FOR SUPPORTING THE SHAFT OF EACH OF SAID ROLLS LOCATED OUTSIDE THE BELT SUPPORTING SURFACE THEREOF, EACH OF SAID ROLLS INCLUDING A PAIR OF AXIALLY SPACED BELT SUPPORTING MEMBERS ONE ON EACH SIDE OF ITS TRANSVERSE CENTER AND MEANS FOR POSITIVELY CAUSING SAID BELT SUPPORTING MEMBERS TO ROTATE AT THE SAME ANGULAR VELOCITY, THE CONSTRUCTION BEING SUCH THAT A SLIGHT DEFLECTION OF THE SHAFT TAKES PLACE SO THAT THE AXES OF THE BELT SUPPORTING MEMBERS OF EACH ROLL CONVERGE TOWARD EACH OTHER AND TOWARD THE OTHER ROLL UNDER LOAD, MEANS FOR ROTATING ONE OF SAID ROLLS, AND MEANS FOR MOVING ONE OF SAID ROLLS TOWARD AND AWAY FROM THE OTHER ROLL TO APPLY TENSION TO THE BELT. 